Two 14-year-old boys in D.C. were killed in separate daylight shootings within 33 hours this week, one Wednesday morning on a tree-lined street in Southeast Washington, the other Thursday after school on the platform of the Brookland Metro station in Northeast Washington, police said.
After the gunshots on the Brookland platform, a 13-year-old boy who had just left his middle school sprinted out of the station, screaming on the phone to his mother that “someone got killed,” according to his mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy. She said her son ran almost two miles back to his house.
As of late Friday morning, no arrests had been made in either killing.
D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith, speaking to reporters from behind crime-scene tape at the Metro station, said the city needs to examine “how our young people are engaged in conflict resolution.”
In 2023, when the city recorded 274 homicides, the worst toll in a quarter-century, the growing violence extended to juveniles, with 19 victims under 18. And several of the year’s killings occurred in Metro stations.
Police data shows homicides are down by 28 percent so far this year compared to the same period in 2023. Irving and Avion were the second and third juveniles slain since the beginning of the year. Jabari Malloy, 17, was fatally shot in February in an alley near the Park View and Columbia Heights neighborhoods, a short walk from the apartment he shared with his aunt and cousins.
Thursday’s fatal shooting occurred near the campus of Catholic University, where students were instructed to shelter in place due to “an active threat.”
On Friday, in a post on the social media platform X, the university asked people to “pray for the soul of the teenage victim who lost his life” and for “peace in our city.”
In July, two men were killed in separate incidents on and near Catholic’s campus. One was shot along a row of restaurants frequented by students; the other, a visiting educator from Kentucky, was shot on the campus in what police said might have been a robbery attempt.
